Spain and Colombia join forces against cocaine labs

Two clandestine cocaine processing laboratories with the capacity to process two tons of drugs per month have been dismantled in Spain and Colombia. 

The first combined operation between Spain’s National Police and the Colombian army targeted an operation controlled by the 21st Front of FARC dissidents. 

In Spain, a laboratory in Casasbuenas (Toledo) was closed down. Four ‘cooks’ were arrested. They were the experts sent from Colombia to turn coca base into high quality cocaine. 

Agents from the GEO unit also arresting an armed person charged exclusively with providing protection to the laboratory as well as overseeing the cooks as they worked. 

In Spain 150 kilos of coca base, seven kilos of cocaine ready for distribution, seven tons of chemicals used as precursors, a revolver and more than €100,000 in cash were seized. 

 As a result of the operation, nine people have been arrested in Spain, including the organisation’s alleged leader and his lieutenant, who controlled another adulteration and cocaine cutting centre in the province of Guadalajara. 

In addition, a clandestine laboratory in the Colombian jungle was simultaneously raided. After an armed confrontation with guards, the Colombian army found 260 litres of coca base and 400 kilos of coca leaf in the lab. Those working in the lab fled into the jungle. 

Police say one of the men detained in Spain had a network of companies at the disposal of the organisation, one of which imported coal from South America. The fossil fuel was impregnated with cocaine, and later recovered through a complex chemical process in the dismantled laboratory. 

 

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Dilip Kuner

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